This story is part of The Audiophiles series, our award-winning series of conversations with the most creative people working with sound around the Bay.

The Garden of Memory is an experimental music concert, which happens every summer solstice in the most peculiar of places – The Chapel of the Chimes columbarium in Oakland. It's a historic building, designed by the great architect Julia Morgan in the 1920s. Built sort of like a maze, it contains thousands of urns with people’s remains. During the concert, this place for the deceased comes alive with dozens of experimental musicians and hundreds of visitors from all over the Bay Area.

What is it like to be at a gathering of audiophiles in such a unique space?

Click on the audio above to hear the sonic portrait that KALW’s Martina Castro and Seth Samuel brought back of the Garden of Memory.

The Garden of Memory concert is put together by New Music Bay Area and Lifemark Group Arts. If you are curious what The Heart Chant sounds like with 300 people doing it, check this out, recorded at our second annual live Crosscurrents. There are more photos from the 2012 Garden of Memory in this flickr group.